The Origin Live
modified Rega RB-250 Tonearm

Upsetting the Apple-Cart

Over the last year or
two a small UK Company called Origin
Live has caused a great Stir in the community of Analogue (read
LP-Records) lovers. How so?

These quaint English
people from Southampton claim to have developed a range of
Modifications to the old budget favorite - the Rega RB-250 and RB-300
Tonearm. They claim that these mods transform the Rega Arm
into something that can match almost any of the high-price arms out
there. The British HiFi-Press as well as internet newsgroups and
e-mail Lists where buzzing.The reactions where hymns of praise
from owners of modified Arms and skepticism from others. Rega's Roy
Gandy even went on record in the British "What HiFi"
Magazine EXPLICITLY counseling AGAINST modifying the Rega-Arm in any
way or form.

Maybe here we should
re-cap a little. The Rega RB-300 and 250 Arms where designed by
Rega's Roy Gandy in the early 80's if memory serves. Everyone said
the star of LP was waning, CD would take over soon, but Rega had a
very expensive custom Mold made, so they could cast the solid
on-piece Armtube for the Rega Arm. This was seen before in the Ultra
Expensive SME Model IV and V Tonearms.

Rega reckoned, that
the rigid single-piece Armtube of the SME Arms had a lot to do with
the quality of the SME Arms. Seems they where right.The arm was
sold with Rega's own turntables for a ridiculously low price and
became an instant hit. It has been in production for ages now and is
a legend. The price is still very low and the Rega Arm is the first
choice for any budget conscious Analogue Lover. Now sold for about
150 UK Pound ($ 250) in various guises, the arm is also standard on
any Rega Turntable.

OEM Versions of this
Tonearm are found literally on almost any Entry-Level to Midprice
Turntable, from Michell (Mycro, Gyrodeck) over Basis to Audio-Note. A
lot of People think the Rega Arm is the greatest thing since sliced
bread.

How do you improve
sliced Bread?

However, almost from
the beginning many people felt that the Rega-Arm was compromised by
putting it in the market at a very low price. The Armtube and the
high quality bearings where the secret weapons of the Rega Arm, but
it also had a number of Achilles Heels.

Long known and decried
is the rather lousy Wire, internal and external, that Rega uses. Roy
Gandy has defended his choice many times, I still feel it was a bad
choice.Another constant Issue is the lack of convenient VTA
(Vertical Tracking Angle) Adjustment with the Rega Arm. Lastly, the
arrangement that Rega uses to attach the Counterweight to the
Arm-tube is less elegant than the one used by SME.

The SME Arm has the
attachment for the counterweight in the same cast piece than the
Armtube and the counterweight is mounted via solid tensioned
set-screws.So the mechanical integrity is absolutely first-rate.
No spurious resonance's can develop and the whole Arm/Counterweight
acts as one solid piece.

Rega's arrangement of
a screw-on rear stub and rubber-decoupled counterweight leaves
something to be desired, causing some resonance and coloration's in
the arm. Still, even in stock condition the Rega Tonearms are serious
contenders for anyone's Tonearm money.So, many Rega Arms where
sold, particularly in England, Scotland and Wales. Soon various
people set up shop modifying the Rega Arm's with all sorts of
approaches.Rega hot-rodding has a long tradition here on the
British Isles. But still, Origin Live claimed they had got much
further than anyone else.

A
stunning mechanical modification by Origin Live elevates them to
above the performance level of some of the very best (no hype!). This
unique modification transforms the arm in such a way that every
aspect of performance benefits. The results have astonished users who
report the difference is a night and day experience.The
modification entails reconstructing the rear end of the arm on which
the counter weight is attached. This is an extremely critical area,
as the counterweight represents by far the highest moving mass in the
arm and affects any arm's performance more than can be imagined.The
work involves removing the rear end stub (which is normally just
screwed into the end of the arm - a sonic disaster), and replacing it
with a new stub, which is then torqued onto the arm by a thin high
tensile bolt. The stub is also designed such that it presents a low
contact area onto the arm tube and is therefore decoupled, yet far
more rigid than the original.This also allows the counterweight
to be rigidly torqued onto the stub using an Allen bolt. On an
unmodified arm, the counterweight must not be rigidly coupled in this
way due to the poor vibration characteristics of the standard arm /
rear stub joint.This ingenious Origin Live modification elevates
a good arm into the same league as the super arms and at an
insignificant outlay.

Origin Live will also
replace the Arms internal Wire with a pure Silver "Litz"
wire and fit a new External Lead. If your turntable has enough
clearance for the added Arm-Height, Origin Live can supply an
Arm-Base that will allow the VAT to be adjusted very easily.

Time for me to ring
them up and get a Review Sample. Mark Baker, CEO of Origin Live, was
very kind and helpful. So soon I unpacked the Arm he send.

A killer on the
loose!

Instead of sending him
a Rega, which I did not have, he send me a complete new and fully
modified Unit. I got the Works. Looking at the arm as it came out of
the box, the Workmanship for all the mods is very good. Mark believes
that the RB-250 is actually in some specific ways superior to the
RB-300, so this what I got.

The Origin Live RB-250
replaced an early Linn Ittok on my Turntable. The other Arm on hand
was a heavily modified OEM Sumiko Arm; similar to the Audio-Quest
Arms sold nowadays. It took a bit of Work and consideration to fit
the Arm onto my Oracle Delphi, mostly because I did not have a
Rega-cut Armboard handy.

After mounting my
trusty Goldring Elite Cartridge, aligning
it and getting everything sorted I sat down to listen. Putting on
again my "calibration" Record, Steely Dan's "Pretzel
Logic" I cued in the first track - "Ricky don't you loose
that number". Tarnation and Blimy - that marimba sounded a lot
fuller than I am used to! And when the Drummer came in - wow what a
weight in the Kick-Drum.

Certainly - that is
where the work Mark has done shows up most. The Bass of this Arm (the
original Rega Arms performance is well known to me) is something
else. The Tympani on the 1967 recording of Copland "Fanfare for
the Common Man", by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra on Turnabout
Records, plummeted to new Depths and had much more impact.

Listening to Suzanne
Vega's "Solitude Standing" (killer bass record) revealed a
solidity, impact and weight in the lower Registers, that I had never
heard before from my system.When I changed the PSU on my Oracle
form the stock "Lump in a Cable" Powersupply to a very high
Energy exceptionally well filtered one (my Oracle has a DC-Motor) the
OL Arm allowed me to appreciate again just how much the extreme
low-end was improved.

Sure, there is also
plenty of Detail, a very good soundstaging and so on, almost
everything is notably improved with respect to the stock Rega. It
took me a long time of enjoyable listening before I could put my
finger onto the single Area where I felt the Origin Live Arm did not
match or exceed my "reference" Arm (the modded Sumiko).

This was "airiness"
and treble extension. Sure, it was all there, but the final bit of
refinement remained elusive. After some playing around with
parameters, looking at all sorts' things, I e-mailed Mark with my
suspicion.I said, that after a lot of thinking I felt that the
Leadout from the Arm was limiting factor. A few e-mail exchanges with
Origin Live later the score was this.

Mark did note that the
choice for the external Cable was very deliberate and that the Cable
was chosen after testing many Cables. But he also agreed that it
might be possible to improve onto the supplied Item. And I do agree,
that given the cost; the Cable chosen by Mark is more than
good.However, I experimentally placed a 5-Pin Mini-Plug into the
Base of the Arm and fitted the suitable plug to the Original
Cable.This allowed me to compare the supplied Cable to my usual
DIY Cable, based on Cardas 23.5
Gauge OEM Wire, with Air Dielectric and a shield spaced as far away
from the Conductors as possible. This Cable uses all Cardas
Connectors (RCA Plugs and the 5-pin Connector).

Using this Cable is a
bit unfair, because it costs a lot more in materials (Plugs, Wire,
Teflon Tubing and so on) than Mark charges for his Cable + fitting.
The commercial Cardas equivalent will cost probably as much as or
more than the full package (new Arm and all mods) from Origin Live.

Still I had it and I
wanted to know. Substituting this Ultra-tweaky Cable showed what this
Arm was really capable of. Sweeter Midrange, cleaner treble and even
deeper, lower Bass-extension.In comparison my other DIY
Arm-Cable, an XLO-inspired Job, sounded different, but not
necessarily hugely better than the external Cable Origin Live
supplied. So, indeed, the external Cable will be the limiting factor
for VERY high resolution systems.

Then again, the Cable
Origin Live supplies is a substantial upgrade over the Stock Cable
for the Rega and (I know it's a cliché) most people will not
feel that this Cable is the limiting factor. Good value for money at
any count.

As I did not have a
SME V or Graham or Triplanar handy, I cannot really comment how close
the OL RB-250 comes to these Arms.However having heard any of
these a few times, I would say that there is little that any of these
does that the OL modded Rega cannot match.

So before shelling out
over a Grand and a half (UK Money) for any of these Super-Arms, do
give Origin Live a try. Either as mod-job to your existing Rega Arm
or as an outright buy, I am sure you will consider yourself having
come out on the better side of this Bargain.

Last orders please!

So, the Origin Live
RB-250 (and likely also the RB-300) are true Giant-killers. They go
way beyond the performance of the original Rega Arm. I love mine. I
am keeping it too. Another of these "I bought the Review sample"
cases.

If you have any
reasonable turntable (Systemdek, Michell, Basis, VPI or whatever)
fitted with Rega RB-250 or 300, dismount the arm and send it off for
the Mods NOW. You have no idea what you are missing.

If you have a simple
Stock Rega Planar 3, this is a bit more difficult. I never felt the
Planar Series to be that good Turntables. The Arm is a lot better
than the Turntable. If you want better sound from your Rega, better
sell it and buy a Origin Live RB-250 directly, together with a real
Turntable. Origin Live makes some very interesting ones by the way.

And DIY Enthusisasts
should have good hard look into the Turntable Kit Section on Origin
Lives Web-Site. If the Kit's are made to same standard (and why
should they not?) as the Tonearms, you have a Killer Turntable at
your Hands, for what is only little more than Beer - Money.

Now please excuse me,
I have a stack of new Vinyl to listen to, so I cannot tell you more
about how good this Arm is. Just go and get one for yourself. Until
another time - keep it spinning at 33 1/3.

The System

The Origin Live Tonearm was
auditioned in my own System consisting of: